Lost Between A Fairy & Leaves
by helrio uzugaku
Summary: The job was done... mostly, but an strange incident took them away from home, only to leave them in the middle of an unknown forest, with no idea of where 'here' is and with uncertainty of how to return to the guild. Or that's what Naruto Dragneel thinks, while Kurama knows that the longer they stay, shadows of their past will more likely find them. Time-travel alter-dimension Naru
1. Eulogy

There are, few things that make me feel. I'll be blunt about this and say I'm emotionally stunted. What others find hilarious I find insulting. Where most find joy I find apathy. The one thing I feel in great amounts MORE than other people, is sadness. I can brush off the murder of a rapist, I can look a bad leader in the eye and tell him honestly that he's a failure and that everything he's doing will only make situations worse and not solve problems.

But I read something today, an old fanfiction I had a soft spot for regardless of it's imperfections. I didn't know what to expect, I had no clue what was waiting for me at the very end of the fanfiction. It was a goodbye note.

Reading the chapter title I thought to myself "great, another good author ran off by shit flinging TROLLS who get their rocks off by insulting people millenia better than they are." But as I read the note I realized, this was something different.

I still don't know how, but this author "rinsegaku" knew. He was going to die. The "**XxXxXxXx**" indicates the beginning AND end of rinsegaku's final message. I'm just glad I found it.

**XxXxXxXx**

If you're reading this, first Hi! Yeah, it's me again after whatever time passed between my last update and this short message, I'm sorry, and I'm even sorrier because this is actually a goodbye, my brother should be uploading this sometime after I've written it but the sentiment is still fresh.

By the time you're reading this, I should be gone. Like dead gone… surprise!

I know, I know, this is not something I should be making fun of, but I never liked the idea of people being sad because of me and I don't want this to change that.

Thank you all for all this wonderful time we kinda spent together through that little piece of me that is my works, and I hope you can use them to build something else entirely, something bigger and better because the ideas are there, I won't take them with me, and I give permission to everybody to use them as they see fit.

There are some other tidbits of works I worked on and never got around to expand or new chapters I never published so those will be uploaded together, hope you can jump there and see what would have happened with this stories at some point, what could have happened, or what I had in mind for other works, and again, those are also free for everyone to use, so enjoy!

Again, thank all of you, and you two dear friends of mine, Sony, Lizzy, I'm sorry I distanced myself so suddenly and I hope I got to say goodbye personally, but if not, just know I've always considered you two between the few people I could call real friends, even if we never really met personally, and that I hope things get better for you two. Who knows what happens next? Maybe we'll get to meet again, I sure hope so.

Well, this is it, goodbye everyone, hope you have good life's ahead of you and longer lives too. See ya.

**XxXxXx**

I don't know how he or she died, I don't know WHY they died. But the fact this was once a living breathing person…. It breaks my heart.

Deep in the furthest reaches of my heart, a place I'm terrified to tread because I know what lurks there, I HATE humanity. I hate it's selfishness, their cold apathy to the living things around them. I especially hate how we treat each other, I hate how we can bury our heads in the sand and IGNORE all of the problems we COULD be solving if we set aside our pride and worked toward a common goal. The advancement of the human race.

But deep down, I know why I hate these things about humanity. It's because I love them. If there's a single word to describe us humans, it would be "contradiction" WE are contradictions. When others tell us to stand DOWN we stand UP, when life pushes US we push BACK, when the chips are down a spark starts a roaring fire that brings forth change that benefits EVERYONE.

When I read the story "lost between a fairy and leaves by rinsegaku" I loved the story. I did, I stuck with it to the end. But when i read the half completed fic in a single day, ending with that message I KNEW that rinsegaku was JUST like his character in his fic. He cared deeply about his friends and family, be cared DEEPLY about others even when they likely didn't deserve it. I honestly don't think I could be half as forgiving as I believe this person to be.

I DO NOT know rinsegaku personally. But after reading his fic and his last message? I truly wish, that I did. I wish I knew enough words to describe how much I want to get to know this person. But I can't do that, not anymore.

I'm just a random reader who was deeply touched by rinsegaku's words. Even now, I cry for the first time in a decade, at the loss of opportunity to know such a wonderful, warm person that rinsegaku MUST have been. When i feel, i DO NOT feel lightly or for JUST anyone.

So this is to announce a few things. I WILL be reposting the story "Lost between a fairy and leaves" this is my way to honor him. This is NOT like the other times I've written fics. The fics I wrote in the past were hollow and empty shells DEVOID of emotion and personal meaning.

I may fail at depicting naruto the way rinsegaku saw him in his story. But I am DAMN sure gonna try.

I urge readers EVERYWHERE, to pick up a tablet, sit at a computer or write on a piece of paper a work of art worthy of this person. His words touched me, I hope they touch you to.

I'm a broken shell of a man, but even I am not heartless to someone like this. Rest well rinsegaku, may your sleep be undisturbed eternal and rewarding. I hope to see you in the next life, whatever that brings. To the family of rinsegaku, I know it's late. I apologize for any old wounds this message reopens. I wish you peace of mind, heart and spirit for your lost family.

Being the emotionally broken person I am, I could never understand the pain you are feeling, but rinsegaku awoke something in me I didn't know was there. I will always be thankful to him or her for that and wish dearly that I could have had the chance to tell them that in person. I can't promise I well written story in honor of rinsegaku, but I won't just sit here and not make something to remember them by.

The story will NOT be altered anyway, shape or form from chapter one to the final goodbye. Everything beyond that point will be what I put together with educated guesses, psychological profiling however inaccurate it may be and my own personal twist to show my appreciation for rinsegaku.

Happy Thanksgiving, please in honor of this wonderful person, pull your family close and be thankful that you still have them.


	2. A Warm Welcome

(A/N): I'm baaaack! after two weeks (I think) of being practically kidnapped on the beach (and I don't mean a nice house on the beach, or in a nice city near the beach) I'm finally back in civillization (yay!) but if I have to be sincere, it wasn't that bad, until I realized that all we had for food was whatever we could fish, but meh... I'm uploading this as soon as I reached my computer, so don't get cranky those who expected an upload of "Rescuing our Future", I wished to upload this for new year's eve so this first chapter was ready to go while the third chapter of the other fic not, but I hope next week it will be up :D.

Oh and this is Jarvis, my new slav... emmm, assistant, say hi Jarvis

"You do realize that calling me like that is overused and not funny right? There's also the fact that I'm not real, and just an invention of your twisted mind, I might add"

Meh, it works for me... whatever, he's going to be the narrator for this fic, and deppending on what a good job he does I might think on expanding his contract to the other fic or firing him before chapter 3

"You can't make contracts with fictional people segaku... (sigh) why do I even bother?"

I ask the same myself... ON WITH THE STORY :D (Sadly I don't own Naruto nor Fairy Tail, if I did Naruto would be Rokudaime, instead of Kakashi, and Natsu would be able to use dragon force at will)

Update 24/03/2015: Well, I had some time and got dried of ideas, so I checked and corrected some mistakes or grammar atrocities here, at least the ones I found, not much but meh, small things can make this easier to read I think :D

"A scattered dream that's like a far-off memory... A far-off memory that's like a scattered dream... I want to line up the pieces... both yours, and mine"

Shiro Amano, Kingdom Hearts 2

Chapter 1: A Warm Welcome

It was a wonderful day in the forest of the Land of Fire. The sun was up and warm, but the wind blew swiftly in cool and refreshing waves, almost caressing the leaves in the trees as it passed through them.

The birds were singing happily on the branches enjoying the peaceful feeling surrounding them…(sigh) it was indeed a most youthful day.

Wait, did I just?…where did that?... meh…Like I was saying, it was a great day. The keyword is 'was' because in a few more seconds a loud scream is going to ruin the almost dreamy beauty of it. Count down with me.

Five... Four... Three... Two... One...

"NANIIIIII?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY SUCKED UP?!"

Yup, there goes the birds, flying away startled, and the peaceful atmosphere is now- thanks to a certain blonde idiot, totally ruined.

Now, I guess we need to see what said blonde idiot is doing right? Oh don't mind the sexy and good looking narrator here and keep reading the rest of the story with…

-Cell phone starts ringing -Oh? Wait a sec please… -Answers the phone -Yeah? I was…what do you mean by…so I can't…fire me if I keep it? Well, fine…-ends call- Humph, killjoy…

Well it seems I can't break the 4th wall otherwise I get kicked out, so I guess I'll keep with the regular standards of this kind of stories and avoid contact with you, readers, and any character here to let you enjoy the plot. Ha! My talent wasted again…well anyway, back to the idiot.

A teenager came out to a clearing, his messy and spiky sun-kissed blonde hair almost shining with the sun. He has blue cerulean eyes and three whisker-like marks on each cheek.

He is wearing a sleeveless orange trimmed dark blue waist coat, open and not tucked, exposing his bare chest showing a muscular and toned torso, not bulky but lean, built mostly for speed than brute force. He's also wearing black knee-length trousers, a thick orange wristband on his right wrist and black open-toed sandals, a white scaled scarf rolled around his neck, and a weird looking symbol tattooed on his right bicep on orange color…

Okay, whoever wrote this has no imagination, I mean…come on! It's clearly the same frigging outfit of…-cell phone rings with a text message alert -Now what?! -Reads message and moans -Fine! I'll shut up now! Happy? (Sigh) ahem…

By his side is a chibi (Small, cute, fangirl dream pet) fox with red-orange fur covering its body, black rings around its red silted pupil eyes, three tails swinging on his rear and two small angel-like wings sprouting from his back keeping it floating besides his companion.

"...aaaaand that prety much sums it up 'till that point Naruto, then, after those guys we were chasing managed to get you inside that carriage- I still don't know how that happened, since it wasusthe ones chasingthem,I had to rescue you" The chibi fox said.

"Damn... have I told you how much I hate vehicles today Kurama?"

"You've just done it."

"Good, you must never forget it" He stated sagely with a firm nod.

"Yeah, yeah. But even you must admit it's kindda lame that Natsu and you are the only dragon slayers with motion sickness in the guild."

"Shut up fuzzball, it must have something to do with how powerful, no matter what Gajeel says, we are… and Wendy is just immune to it."

"Just keep saying that to yourself, maybe one day you'll believe it."

"Hater... I'm still mad at you though. Why you had to burn up the carriage with me inside? Don't you care about me?" Naruto asked with a pout.

"Hey! You know you are immune to fire attacks, so don't give me that shit. I'm sure that if you weren't disabled you would have eaten it before it hit home."

"Point taken… well, just after you took me out of there you say a massive thing in the sky that looked like an Anima appeared and sucked up only both of us?"

"Yup! Then it threw up us here so we started free-falling. I managed to grab you before you crashed on the ground, and about half an hour later you woke up."

"Hmmm… you say it was similar to an Anima, but we destroyed the machine that created them on Edolas, and Mystogan promised to never make something like that ever again… could have he dared to break his promise?"

"Nah, he's from Fairy Tail, jus like us, you should know better than to think like that. Besides, the similarities between what brought us here and an Anima ended in the looks, even the energy of that thing felt… different… and right now we are in a forest. I don't remember any forest on Edolas. The strange thing is that I don't feel any Eternano around us either."

"True… could this be another world, again? And one without magic at that... again? We need to find a way to return home pronto! I don't have a good memory of worlds without magic... that, and Natsu-nii will get worried when he returns as an S-class mage and we are not there to greet him."

"You meanifhe returns as an S-class mage."

"Come on Kurama! We trained really hard the week before the trial just for Natsu to become strong enough to get the promotion… But, I still think that lightning and fire form of his is really broken. I wonder if Laxus would let me eat one of his bolts."

"Uh-huh, and then he would personally train you…" Kurama said sarcastically while rolling his eyes "But why he didn't teamed up with you then? I mean, I don't have anything against Happy, but besides flying I don't see how much help he can give Natsu."

"If we both have teamed up for the trial there wouldn't have been much challenge, don't you think? We are quite overkill together, and I can only imagine the old man and Gildarts stopping us then. But chances of us fighting any of them were as low as Erza's temper."

"Point taken."

"Besides, this is a way to test ourselves. If we are strong enough to make S-class without the help of the other, then we will be able to find Igneel in no time!" he beamed at the floating fox, making said furry animal roll his eyes once more in mock annoyment.

"That's the dragon twins for you, no way but the hard one… well, can you use magic? If this is like Edolas then only I will be able to, and that can make our return quite… hard."

"True." Nodded Naruto "We could use magic there only after Mystogan gave us those weird pills… guess there is only one way to try it."

He inhaled deeply and puffed his cheeks while forming a trumpet with his hands in front of his mouth.

"Karyuu no…"

Seeing this, Kurama's eyes widened at the same time he tried to stop him, but he reacted too late.

"…Hooko!"

The blonde breathed out, and a magic seal appeared in front of his hands, making the breath turn into a big stream of fire coming out, burning everything on it's wake… and starting a forest fire.

"Naruto, you baka…" Kurama said while face…pawing? "You had to usethatin the middle of a forest, right?"

"Hehehe…sorry?" He answered while scratching the back of his head and grinning sheepishly. Only then he noticed that the fire was spreading. Fast.

"I suggest we make our escape now, before someone sees us and blame us for this."

"I second that!" Kurama shouted already half way out of the clearing.

"Oi! Wait for me!" Shouted Naruto running after his friend until they both disappeared from eyesight.

Unknown to them, a silhouette shot out of a nearby tree branch after spying their conversation and darted to a village not too far from there, a shimmer of light through the trees revealed silver colored hair.

Tsunade Senju was not having a nice day. The Godaime Hokage was anchored to her desk with a shitload of paperwork, and the council had just had a meeting sometime earlier to decide who would be the new advisors.

Well, more like only be informed of their names. She had already decided who they would be, and there was no way in hell she would let that damned council overrule her again, she'd had enough of that the first time.

Amongst herbelovedcouncelors were Koharu Utatane and Homura Mikotado… two old geezers that would fit better in a museum than in the council, unable see the world on the new light that time brought in with its pass.

They were the old advisors and teammates of her sensei, the dead Sandaime Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi.

True, during their own time their advice would have been considered wise, with more than enough experience granted by the wars they lived through backing their position, besides of being tutored by the Shodaime and Nidaime Hokages themselves, along with their teammate Danzo Shimura.

On top of that they had a close relation with the dead Sandaime, but there was not much they could offer on this time.

They were far past their prime to be in active force, and their knowledge was better suited to education of the new genin more than ruling a village.

The funny thing was that, despite their influential position, they were the easier ones to remove from the council.

Using loopholes on the laws of the village and taking on count their age, it was easy to convince them to leave with a promise of retirement with honors, a generous monthly pension as a token of gratitude for their long service to the village, and a place in the academy that allowed them to tutor the teachers with topics that they deemed worthy of reviewing in the annual academy curriculum.

Well, it was either that or be kicked out to a retirement house with just an honorific mention for their service to the village, so there was no much choice for them.

Even if the second option was really appealing to Tsunade, Shikamaru 'advised' that it would bring more benefits to their goals to let them think they still got an important position.

It was Danzo the one who brought them the most trouble.

At the beginning, it was easy to gather evidence against him and ROOT because, unlike the last time, they knew exactly what and where to look for information, but the old war hawk was no fool and quickly noticed the leaks of information about his secret division.

He started taking even more cautions around him to avoid being under the spotlight. It took nearly two years to finally get enough evidence to confront him without worries of the plan backfiring on them in political fields.

There always came a loud curse along with the memory when Tsunade thought about the fight he forced them into inside one of his secret hideouts, the one under the Hokage monument to be exact, when they made their move to arrest him, Sasuke personally asking to be the one to pluck out the stolen eyes of his fallen clan, specially the one of his uncle Shisui, but it was thanks to the sacrifice of that same eye that Danzo managed to escape along with a little group of his most loyal followers, aka brainwashed ROOT operatives.

Everyone - inside their little group - remembered that it was Sasuke who took the guy out of the game the first time, thankfully before the war exploded. With him alive she feared the outcome would have been worse than it was, but this time said boy only had 15 years at that point, and even with the help of the Eternal Magenkyo (no clue as to how the eye evolved despite not having the transplant now) and a quite wide repertoire of jutsus, they could only get him so far with the lack of the stamina and reserves he had years ago.

Or years ahead should it be?

The intervention of every one of their little group was necessary to take care of Danzo and his little circus, but they somehow managed to make him flee without making him suspicious about their condition, the war hawk promising to return one day to make sure that Konoha would get it's true place among the other villages.

Yeah sure, and she would let Jiraya fight the Six Paths of Pain alone again.

But even if the memory was an unpleasant one, it was not the reason of her current depressed state.

It was the date itself what provoked her bad mood.

When they returned to this part of their timelines after their little experiment with the Hiraishin seal array, they found out that they arrived just when Naruto went after Sasuke on the retrieval mission fiasco during the original timeline.

True, they all knew that Naruto had bought time for them stalling Madara just enough for the seal to work, then jumping in, not after being seriously injured by said Uchiha, the injury managing to disrupt his chakra enough to provoke an unpleasant side effect from the jutsu on him.

The painful screams were more than enough proof of that.

Still, all of them held hopes of greeting both Naruto and Sasuke when they felt the faint trail of Chakra reaching the village doors from a distance along with Kakashi.

Sadly only one boy returned this time again, one with black instead of blonde hair.

Yesterday would have ended the time that Jiraya took to train said blonde, and today she should have already heard Naruto screaming at top of his lungs that he was finally back at the village after a 3 year long training mission.

For the rest of the world, oblivious of the possible fate of the blonde, it was just that she was extra pissed off by the mountains of paperwork she had to endure on a daily basis.

Search parties were sent every week, leaded by each one of the travelers, she included, to look for the blonde idiot that made possible for them this second chance, despite what he had to endure those last weeks.

Even as Hokage she would not let pass a chance to look for her little brother, but so far no sign of him appearing showed to them, and slowly hope started to leave her as the years passed by… she would never stop searching, but sometimes she wondered if she would see the gaki ever again.

"Tsunade-sama" the woman stretched her arm to punch whoever caught her unaware, and instantly a log was turned into splinters by the punch.

Once she regained her composure, she noticed a pale Kakashi staring her from a corner of the office.

"If it's not good news about the search party for Naruto you commanded today, Kakashi, better get out of my sight. I'm not in the mood to have small chat… at least not today."

Remembering why he was here, and silently thanking his foresight in hiding that log in the office for situations like this one, Kakashi straightened himself and stepped to the desk to give his report.

"I found him Tsunade–sama." he said with an eye smile.

"I told you that if it wasn't about…" she stopped herself from cracking her knuckles when the words finally registered on her mind.

It must be stated that 'registering' means not the same as 'understanding'.

"Huh?"

Kakashi resisted the urge to facepalm. True, she is the strongest kunoichi and best medic-nin in the entire elemental nations, capable of being scary as hell when she wishes to, but right now she looked as clueless as a fresh genin in the middle of a battlefield.

"I said that I finally found Naruto, he-"

"TELL ME NOW WHERE THE HELL IS HE!" the scream could be heard all around Konoha and in the near forests.

This made 6 people and a small fox turn their heads towards the source. Five of them immediately recognized what it meant and ran as fast as they could towards the Hokage tower.

The blonde teenager running in the forest away from a massive fire just shrugged it as his imagination and kept running, while the small fox, Kurama, stopped dead on his tracks for a second, floating on the spot.

"Was that…?"

He was forcefully cut off from his musing by a hand pulling him farther away from the raging fire, Naruto yelling at him to fly faster, clearly not noticing that he was now dragging him.

Seeing it didn't mattered at the moment, he pushed the thought to the back of his mind.

Kakashi just sighed and waited for everyone else to arrive, after calming Tsunade of course... which caused him to unseal at least half a dozen of logs he had stored in scrolls to aid in emergencies during battles, or situations like this one.

He should consider suggesting that sealed logs become part of the standard Konoha nin gear when in missions away from the forests of Hi no Kuni.

Anyway, in less than a minute 5 other people entered the office, each one voicing their own questions quite loudly, trying to make their own sound louder than the others.

He just hoped to discuss this matter privately with Tsunade and keep it a secret from the others until they could say with certainty what that weird energy Naruto was emanating was. It felt really similar to chakra, but there was also something else there… and that weird technique he used to set the forest on fire, did he call it magic?

And, there was also the matter of the people he overheard him talking about, quite fondly he noticed, during his conversation with that small fox… that had three tails, and looked really similar to the giant fox that attacked the village so many years ago, and was supposedly sealed inside the boy. Where had he been all this time? Who were those people he was talking about? And why was that fox so damn cute?!

"KAKASHI!"

The shout from Tsunade woke him up from his inner debate, only to face said woman glaring at him and releasing enough Killer intent to make even Orochimaru shiver.

"Where. Did. You. Find. Him."

"I…ehh…THE FOREST!" Kakashi shouted frantically under the effect of the heavy dose of killing intent that was directed towards him, not only from Tsunade, but from every person present there, all clearly annoyed from being forced to wait for information about Naruto.

Once the pressure lifted enough to let the Cyclops breath normally again, he explained further.

"I found him in the forest outside of the village, northeast from the gates, but he escaped before I could contact him... you can't miss him, you should be blind to not see the fire that he caused with this strange fire technique he used... weird it can't be seen from-"

"Fire?" Asked Sasuke, getting the attention of everyone in the room. "Since when he dobe know how to use Katon release? Last time I checked he was very proficient with Fuuton, but far from capable with other elements."

"I'm not sure that was an elemental release at all Sasuke, the energy he used on it was different, and there was also this weird seal that materialized out of nowhere-"

"Kakashi, are you sure this is Naruto?" Tsunade asked in a serious tone, regaining the attention of all the present there.

"Positively, all the physical treats are still there. The hair, the eyes, even the whisker marks on his cheeks… he still is a carbon copy of Minato-sensei. But that fire I told you about was quite big, no doubt he will have big problems once he is back for causing it."

He then smiled and spoke in a more casual and lazy tone "He stills does things before even thinking about it…guess that never will change huh?"

Everyone chuckled at this, remembering how Naruto was before war times, and sometimes even during it, not at all worried that there was a raging fire burning up the forest arround their village.

"We can discuss how an idiot he is once you bring him back, first take care of the fire. We now know he is in the near forest and we can have Hinata search him more efficiently. Level the terrain so I can send Tenzo later to regrow it, or leave it as a clearing depending on the situation and size it is found in, then don't return unless you bring the gaki back."

"If that's really him, I don't think he will need an escort to return here…troublesome blonde." Shikamaru mumbled showing extreme dislike at the idea of going through the hassle of bringing Naruto back to the village, but those who knew him well (say, the other 6 in the room) could tell that he was relieved that finally, after so many years, their friend would return.

Only after Tsunade dismissed the group and sent Kakashi elsewhere, she allowed herself to drop the business face, and let a smile draw itself in her lips.

This would mean more paperwork than she would be comfortable with once Naruto was finally back, for him to be reinstated as a citizen and a ninja of Konoha, but for the first (and only) time in her life she would gladly deal with it, only if it meant that her little brother would finally be home again.

They had a lot to make up with him, but she was sure he would forgive them with time, and then everything would be fine once again.

Shizune entered the room a little later, answering her calling with a notepad on hand.

"Go to the village and bring here the rest of Naruto's graduation class, as well as Jiraya, Teuchi and Ayame Ichikaru, Iruka and I guess Konohamaru and Inari might also wish to be here. Every one you consider would be glad to hear that Naruto has finally returned."

Naruto is not a prideful person (snort) but he always praised himself for the small feats he achieved during his life.

One of them was that he considered himself a quite intelligent guy, or at least more than his older brother, Natsu, and that, unlike him, he would think and analyze his would be opponent before engaging a battle.

Well, at least he would do that most of the time…

Okay, okay, he would at leasttryto restrain himself enough time to ask for a friendly fight with whoever he deemed strong enough to face him.

But, hey! At least he would ask, that was better than what Natsu does, jumping to the guy with a flaming punch ready to strike.

Why that small parenthesis, you may ask? After escaping for a while, Naruto's enhanced sence of smell caught a weird scent, one that was new to him, no doubt about it, but somehow it also felt… homey?

He followed the trail of the scent back to the still spreading fire out of curiosity, very well aware that there was no way he would catch a smell like that one in a foreign place like this one, but when he saw what the people in the area the scent lead him to were doing... well, he started bouncing in his spot, all giddy and excited, barely managing to restrain himself from engaging all of the people there in a fight at the same time.

First, a girl with long blue hair and weird eyes started a serie of weird signs with her hands, and the next moment ahugedragon made of water appeared out of nowhere and crashed in the middle of the fire with a thunderous roar, extinguishing the flames almost totally.

Then, another girl with pink hair (huh? Is Natsu a girl in this place?) did another chain of those weird signs and slammed her palm on the ground. Not a second later, the whole part of the forest that was still on fire and affected by the force of the attack of that water dragon shifted and covered itself on more earth, leaving only a flat terrain with no signs of destruction.

The only coherent explanation he found for that last demonstration was that, whatever world this one was, Juura of Lamia Scale was a girl with pink hair here.

'If those two girls could do that, then what would the other guys be able to do? Wait, that girl summoned a dragon made of water out of nowhere… could she also be a dragon slayer? Why she don't smell like dragons then? Is she like Laxus and has a lacrima on her? Could she… could she know... maybe Igneel is in this world?'

The train of thoughts was different on Kurama's head.

'Sasuke, Hinata, Shikamaru, Lee and Sakura… I knew this was a familiar place, and that scream from before, no doubt that was Tsunade… this is bad. If we are here now, then that means… no… that can't be! We have a life in Earthland already! Friends, family…he can't lose that only to pass through hell again here. We must keep away from them and find some way to return home.'

The suggestion to leave the place died before it even left the fox's lips, because when he turned to his side Naruto was gone, and after looking arround for him with his head he couldn't help but facepaw and fly towards him, thinking on what to do now.

"What was that? It was sooo cool! Are you a water mage like Juvia? Are you a dragon slayer too? Where is your dragon? Why don't you smell like dragons? Do you have a lacrima on you like Laxus? Do you know where Igneel is? Fight me!"

Hinata did not understood what the hell happened. One second she was using a Suiryuudan to extinguish the forest fire, and the next one this weird looking guy with blonde spiky hair was… wait, blonde spiky hair?

"Naruto, let them be… I bet she didn't understood a word of what you said, well, besides from you demanding a fight I guess… Up to this day I can't figure out how you manage to say so much in just one breath." The flying fox said while shaking his head, a paw still on his face, and sighing. "And that is not the right way to ask for a spar, can't you learn something from Erza?"

"Erza is scary… and asking/demanding is still better than jumping straight over with a flaming punch or kick like Natsu-nii does." Naruto answered, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring in mock annoyance at the small fox.

"Point taken."

"Besides, you also saw how she summoned that water dragon!" he said, now brimming with exitement (the mood swings of this lad are scary), while pointing a finger to Hinata, making her blush a bit.

"That was soooooo cool!" he said happily with glitter around his face and stars on his eyes "Maybe she knows where Igneel is."

"I highly doubt it, kit… better be going now, we still need to find a way to return home and we don't have even the slightest idea of where we are now."

"Oh yeah, true… sorry 'bout the fire." He said to Hinata's group while scratching the back of his head sheepishly, an action that everyone on that group missed greatly.

"I hope your… errr… forest grows up again, bye." He finished, shooting his trademark foxy grin and waving a hand goodbye to them, before turning around and start walking into the forest talking casually with Kurama.

"Oi dobe, where are you going? Tsunade and Kakashi are waiting for you on the village."

Naruto stopped on the spot, his casual chat with Kurama interrupted by a twitch on his eye.

"What did you just call me?"

Sasuke smirked, not having Naruto arround to mess with for 4 long years cut down much of the amusement he found inside the village - not that the blonde was only a source of entertainment for him, but he did liked to annoy him, so, the moment he heard the irked tone on the blonde's voice a sence of familiarity washed over him, and he couldn't help the urge to annoy his friend/rival more, for old time's sake.

"Just what you heard,usuratonkachi."

'Ohhh, this guy's just begging to have his ass kicked'Naruto thought as he turned arround to face the raven-haired teen smirking at him, glare already in place, but also smirking in anticipation for how much he was going to enjoy punching the highlights out of him.

There are few things that could really get one on Naruto's bad side, his usual bicker and fights with Gajeel, Gray, or whoever who's turn was, in the guild were just some… kind of game, you could say.

But, being called names was something he would answer with a flaming punch to the face... most of the times.

He would let the names pass with the members of the guild, they were family after all, and he knew they meant no harm with it, and he would sometimes let it go during fights, him being used to apply that tactic a lot to get on his opponet's nerves and make him lose his focus.

But for a guy he never saw before, least even talk to, let pass calling him like that without apparent reason, just like they were long time friends? Like hell he would.

Gathering enough magic power to make his point clear with only one strike, he focused it on his fist, igniting it with flames, already stretching it in a punch motion as he jumped towards the still smirking guy, full intent on wiping the smile of his face.

"Karyuu no Tekken!"

Everybody went on high alert when they felt the energy spike in Naruto, noticint that it wasn't chakra… or at least not totally. A second later he was turning to Sasuke with a flame-engulfed fist, ready in a punching motion.

The heat on the fist could be felt even at the distance they got between them and Naruto, and it was not eventhatclose.

No one dared to move when they saw the punch stretch in Sasuke's direction, too shocked by what was happening… Naruto attacking Sasuke, clearly meaning harm?

The punch being inches away from Sasuke's face made everyone cringe and close their eyes, already expecting the sick crunch sound of bone being broken that came the next moment, and kept them that way fearing the image of a heavily injured Uchiha.

The few seconds their eyes were shut felt like hours, and they only opened them when the voice of a clearly freaked out Sasuke was heard.

"N-Naruto? W-why t-the hell d-did you just a-attack me?!"

The sight that greeted them was intimidating, Naruto standing there with dangerously narrowed eyes, arm still stretched.

He was, obviously, more than annoyed.

His still flame engulfed fist stopped by an already fading purple rib cage made of chakra. It was broken… nay, it was virtually reduced to splinters, and Sasuke was wide eyed, eternal Magenkyo active, staring at Naruto with clear surprise, and a bit of fear.

Smirk widening at the reaction he got, he was about to answer with another punch, but was stopped by Kurama's voice shouting at him.

"You are overreacting Naruto! Calm down and think about our situation, and remember Edolas… maybe it's just some misunderstanding!"

Naruto thought about that for a second, Edolas… they were pulled into that world by an Anima because of their magic, but what did that had to do with… of course!

His eyes widened in realization, and he felt like banging his head on a tree for being such an idiot. Surely there was another Naruto in this world and this guys were his friends, so the bastard was only joking with him, just like the people back in the guild.

Looking guilty to a side, he deactivated his magic, making his eyes return to their usual shape, and retreated his arm, which now was even closer to the black haired guy than the previous one, and apologized.

"I'm sorry, I let my emotions get the best of me, it's just… I don't like being called names, it brings back some… memories I would like to forget."

"No kidding?" Sasuke asked sarcastically while nursing a bruise on his cheek. Even if the fist didn't hit, the force behind it was strong enough to make the air act like a weaker extension of it.

"Come on Naruto, Tsunade is going to punch us all the way to Suna if we make her wait even more."

"Eeeemmmm, weeeelllll, you see… I am not exactly who you think who I am." He said awkwardly while scratching the back of his head.

"Stop joking you baka, we need to get you back to the village. You know it's around the time that Akatsuki will make their move to Suna." Sakura said exasperatedly.

What was Naruto playing at? First he disappears for 4 years, and then when he decides to return he appears dressed weirdly and with a chibi kyuubi by his side, acting like this is the first time he ever saw them? If this was some kind of prank, then she didn't find it funny.

Well… I'm Naruto, but not your Naruto… it's a weird situation ya' know?" He then turned to the small fox "Do I tell them?"

"Do it, it can clear all this mess, then we can return to look for a way to get back home, the old man will skin me alive if he finds out, even if it's not my fault… you will not tell him, will you?"

Naruto just grinned evilly and turned to the confused group in front of him.

"Were to start?" he asked himself while tapping his chin with a finger thoughtfully, a habit he had adopted from Mira.

"I know! I'll tell you about Edolas and from then I'll explain about my world!."

The ones that weren't recovering from the almost heart attack just looked at him weirdly, but he ignored them and started to explain about the alter dimensions and counterparts on each world, then he started to speak about his world, Earthland, and how magic is the energy used there.

Kurama played along with it, satisfied with how they seemed to be believing them… not that it was hard to do so in a world where you could spit lava from your mouth, or have eyes with time-space twisting abilities, and even summon mountain-sized animals capable of fightingandspeaking… just a bit more and they would be out of this.

"… and that's pretty much it. What's my name… well, the name of the other me here?"

"Naruto Uzumaki." Hinata answered sorrowfully, her hopes of her blonde...friendfinally returning being higher than ever after Kakashi's report earlier that day, but even if the sight before her eyes was the one of Naruto, she knew that this guy couldn't be her... theirNaruto, it was imposible for the kind and friendly blonde they knew to extract revenge in such a painful way, denying every bond between them and acting as if never knowing them before.

Theyhadmessed up horribly with him, but it was hard to think of Naruto Uzumaki acting like that towards his friends.

That, and the demonstration they had of thismagicnot too long ago was enough to make things clear for them, albeit a little too... forceful.

"See? My name is Naruto Dragneel. Hmmm... thinking about it... It would be nice to meet the Naruto from here, it was fun to meet Edo-Natsu and Edo-Gray." He said with a smirk, remembering how different those two were from the ones he knew.

How would the Naruto from this world would be?

"I'm sorry to inform you, friend, that our Naruto went MIA about 4 years ago in a mission. We have been searching for him all this time but we haven't found any trace of him." Lee said, in a very out of character melancholic voice.

"So when somebody spotted me..." the blonde said with furrowed eyebrows "... you thought Uzumaki had returned, right?"

Everyone looked at him curiously at how he called their Naruto.

"What? I'm also called Naruto, and this can get you lot confused, at least it is a little confusing for me. You can call me Dragneel if you don't want to confuse us again."

"Troublesome blondes…" the Nara muttered with a tired sigh "but yeah, we thought you were Uzumaki." Even if his tone was his usual tired and lazy one, he was clearly sad that his friend was still missing.

Silence fell upon the group after that, the shinobi trying to cope with the fact that their hopes of meeting their blonde friend were, once again, crushed, while the mage mulled over the new information that had been relied to him, and the small fox floating next to the Dragon Slayer waiting impatiently for the moment when they would finally leave.

"I know!" Naruto shouted after some time, making everyone jump in surprise at the sudden interruption of their musing.

Also, they could swear that a flame lit up over his head, like signaling he got an idea.

"I can help you find Uzumaki, and in exchange you help us find a way to return to Earthland, what do you say?"

Seeing no reason to not accept, and also striving for any kind of resemblance of their friend, Hinata and Sakura were about to accept at the moment, but Shikamaru opened his mouth before them, a frown of his face.

"Thanks for offering your help, but before accepting can I discuss this with my teammates?"

"Sure, take your time." Naruto said, walking to a side with Kurama.

"Do you think this is a good idea, Naruto?" Asked the fox coolly, making a great effort at keeping his rising panic under control.

"Of course Kurama, this way I get to meet my counterpart here, and also we get extra help at finding a way to return back home, it's a win-win." he said, flashing a wide grin.

Kurama thought about it for a while, seeing it from that perspective. It was true, that old pervert Jiraya could make something Fuuinjutsu-related to store some Eternano from Naruto, and then they could somehow adapt and use it, along with Kakashi's Kamui, to open a rift between dimensions and allow them to go back to Earthland.

In theory it sounded plausible, and if not then they could think of something like that. He had forgotten ninjas were crafty like that, they would only need to keep away from Doujutsus, or really skilled sensors, and they could pass through this mess without making a fuzz of it.

"I hope you're right kit, I hope-"

"Naruto-kun!"

The sound of the voice, the desperate and hopeful tone of it froze the fox on the spot, a cold shiver running down his spine, a feeling he wasnotused to feel, at least not for himself, but for his blonde kit...

The voice was from Hinata, and he would gamble Igneel's left wing that the Hyuuga had her Byakugan active, and, by extention, the Uchiha.

Busted.

Kurama was already grabbing Naruto's waist coat to pull him out of there flying, when he noticed the thin tendril of shadow extending from a certain pineaple-haired shinobi on the oposing group.

"Shit! Naruto, we need to leave, now!"

"Why? Aren't we going to help them?"

"Kage mane no jutsu, success."

Just noticing what happened, Naruto struggled against the hold, together with Kurama, but both found that in their current situation there was little they could do.

"Why the hell are you using magic! I thought we had a deal!"

"So, I was right after all huh, Kyuubi? Troublesome demon…"

"Damn you Nara, damn you and thatstupidgenius brain of yours!"

Naruto didn't heard anything else from that conversation, he didn't cared after all. All that echoed on his mind was that simple last word… demon.

A flash of memory went through his head at that moment, and his fists clenched on restrained fury as names he remembered being called before echoed again and again in his head…monsterthey whispered,demon brat,why won't you die?

"You are just likethem... those voices from before Kurama, Igneel and Natsu-nii…"demon… even if his voice was slow and hard, they all could feel the sorrow and pain that filled every word "I changed my mind… we don't need your help."

"P-please Naruto-kun, i-it's not like-" Hinata pleaded, but was cut shut by a sudden outburst of Naruto.

"SHUT UP!" Naruto screamed in rage and fire exploded around him, the pressure generated by the Chakra filled Eternano was simply too much for Shikamaru to keep the jutsu active, so after some more struggle he lifted it, allowing Naruto to once again move freely.

Said blonde just turned to his friend and said on a cold voice "We are leaving Kurama."

The fox was fast behind him, trying to calm him down, making him remember that he should not letthose foolsget the best of him, and that he should focus on other things, like finding a way to return back to their home, and finding something to take back with them, as some kind of memento from being the only ones from fairy Tail being here.

And much to his relief, it was working as the frown slowly disappeared, and even a small smile appeared, but then a green blur had to appea in front of them, and just like that Naruto's bad mood was back with a vengeance.

"Yosh! Naruto-kun, your flames of youth burn brightly, but we need to-"

"Karyuu no Enchuu!"And with a wet crunch where the flame-propelled punch hit, Lee was launched into the forest, and Naruto kept distancing himself from the shocked group.

If someone ever told Sasuke what have just happened, he would have laughed and dismissed the clearly delusional man. But he had just seen Naruto, the happy-go-lucky blonde dobe, orange and ramen lover... the one who would die (and actually died, or so they thought) for the safety of his friends, hurt Lee willingly, and then step away without showing care about what just happened.

There's no doubt about it, thisisNaruto Uzumaki, the feel of his chakra, and the presence of a chakra network to begin with, is enough evidence already, he knew it thanks to his Sharingan, and Hinata's Byakugan only confirmed it.

But there was a weird mass of energy in the place where the seal was before, its feeling was similar to the senjutsu energy... he may not able to use it, but he was familiar to the feel of nature chakra, and according to what he saw, this weird energy combined with Naruto's chakra continuously without depleting.

Just where had he been all this years, and what could have happened to make himbelievethat he belonged somewhere else? The dobe's homeisKonoha, among them, their freinds, and he would not let him go away this time, he would bring him back home, even if he had to break every bone in his body.

He would know what happened to his friend during this 4 years.

"You are not going anywhere dobe, we are taking you back home and clearing up all this mess" Sasuke stated coldly, already blocking his path, but at a safe distance from him and any other of those dangerous punches.

Naruto started to shake in anger, blue slitted eyes that would have maimed the raven haired guy in front of them if they could narrowed dangerously as his mouth morphed into a scowl.

"shut up… Shut Up!... SHUT UP!" and building his magic he inhaled deeply and blew out a huge twister of fire directly to him.

"Karyuu no Hooko!"

Sasuke felt the energy building in Naruto's lungs before he released the attack, so guessing what could come out he flashed through hand seals and blew his own sphere of fire at the same time.

"Gokakyuu no jutsu!"

For a moment both fire attacks clashed and fought for supremacy, but the dragon's fire proved to be stronger and consumed Sasuke's jutsu, increasing its size and closing in to Sasuke, who thinking quickly shunshined close to Naruto, Sharingan active and spinning into the Eternal Magenkyo once again.

Both locked eyes for a second, while the massive ball of fire was stopped by a combined effort of Sakura and Hinata with an earth wall and another Suiryuudan.

That second of eye contact was enough for Sasuke to cast a genjutsu on Naruto and disable him, just in time to avoid most of the damage from another flaming punch directed to him, which still managed to launch him into a tree with enough force to dent it.

Even if it wasn't a full hit, the strength behind it managed to force the wind around into some kind of ghost punch, much like the hits of his Gamma-ken enhanced with senjutsu… it hurt.

Coughing some blood he rose to his knees and panted there, waiting for someone to heal him. He shivered at the idea of receiving that punch on full force.

Hinata quickly ran to heal him while Sakura rushed to where Lee was, her superior medical knowledge would be necessary to heal him, and Shikamaru stayed behind in case Naruto woke up and attacked again, or the fox tried something, so he was on guard when Kurama floated to where Naruto laid unconscious on the ground. The small fox then turned with a glare to Sasuke.

"What did you do to Naruto?"

It's a simple illusion… the true question here is, what you did to the dobe…Kyuubi" but before the fox could say something Hinata spoke.

"Don't try to deny it, thisisNaruto-kun… the feeling of his chakra is unique, and hehaschakra pathways, that simple fact throws out the lie of you being from other world" She said with her Byakugan active.

Kurama sighed in defeat and grabbed Naruto by the collar of his waist coat after checking that the illusion was a simple one indeed, and that it would not trigger some unpleasant… reaction with his memories, and started to lift him.

"Where do you think you are going?" Shikamaru asked, starting with the hand seals for another Kagemane, and Kurama sighed once again. This would be a loooooong day for both of them.

"Get the green one back and meet me in that clearing, then we go straight to Tsunade's office without attracting attention to ourselves, I won't escape… it's useless now. Once we are inside her office I will explain what happened, so we can finally leave to find a way back home."

"But Naruto-kun is finally back home now!" Hinata cried, she had been waiting too long for her crush to return, and she would not let him leave again.

"Like I said, I will explain once we are on the old hag's office" and then he flew along with Naruto to the shadow of a nearby tree to wait for the group to get together, and so they did.

After being healed enough to leave (according to Sakura Lee only had cracked ribs, his strong constitution protected him from getting them totally broken and having internal damage) they departed to the Hokage tower, where, according to Kyuubi, they would find out what happened to the blonde idiot that gave them a second chance to save their world.

Spell/Jutsu guide

Karyuu no Hooko -Fire dragon's breath.

Karyuu no Tekken -Fire dragon's iron fist.

Karyuu no Enchu -Fire dragon's elbow.

Gokakyuu no jutsu -Grand fireball technique.

Kagemane no jutsu -Shadow imitation technique.

**(10/28/2019 UPDATE) **

**Well everyone, here it is, the first of many chapters from rinsegaku's "Lost Between A Fairy Leaves" just taking the chance to inform you that very little was changed. but i did spell check and correction for a few words that weren't spelled the way they were intended to be spelled.**

**object lines, had to be manually put back in so starting next chapter I'll be reading and correcting as i go. updates will come as i smooth out the mess the mobile app leaves me. **

**happy thanksgiving everyone!**


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